


i feel it in my bones, enough to make my system blow

by QueenIsabelle



Series: night visions [3]
Category: Frozen (Disney Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: F/M, Jelsa - Freeform, Jelsa Week 2019, One Shot, and the relationships are really faint, dystopian au, honestly, it's like hinted at, rather than cute and sweet, this is kind of angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 01:18:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21329878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenIsabelle/pseuds/QueenIsabelle
Summary: Jelsa Week 2019Prompt Day 3: PowerlessDystopian AU. Elsa was born with ice powers, but her parents weren’t supportive and sent her away to be tested on. One day the Guardians break her out, but she can’t use her powers for some reason.
Relationships: Elsa (Disney)/Jack Frost (Guardians of Childhood)
Series: night visions [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1535909
Kudos: 45





	i feel it in my bones, enough to make my system blow

* * *

For as long as Elsa could remember, there was only the Gray Room. Four walls, the ceiling, the floor—it was concrete nothingness. She spent the majority of her days lying around, switching from the thin mattress with the threadbare blanket to the cold floor. Sometimes, when she had the energy, she would do things to get her blood pumping, like jumping jacks or push-ups. Mostly, though, she laid around and thought about the family she was slowly starting to forget.

Elsa was eight years old when the White Suits came for her. She had always been “special,” as her parents referred to her magic. They had emphasized the importance of keeping it hidden, to never use it. But Anna, her younger sister, thought that Elsa’s magic was the most wondrous thing, and Elsa could never say no to her little sister. One night, after their parents had gone to sleep, Anna had convinced Elsa to use her magic and create a winter wonderland in the middle of summer. Elsa had, of course, obliged. And that was when things had gone wrong.

Elsa had accidentally struck Anna in the head with her magic. Their parents had rushed in at the sound of Elsa’s cries and spirited Anna away to the healers. Elsa had been beside herself with worry; she’d covered the house in ice in her distress. When her parents had returned with a healthy, but sleeping, Anna, the White Suits had come with them. They’d carried her away, screaming for her family.

As the years had gone by, Elsa realized that it was her parents that had turned her in, that had sent her to this place. She wanted to feel angry about it, but at the same time, she knew that it was the right decision. She had nearly killed Anna when she was only eight years old—what sort of damage could she have done now, as an adult? Or, almost an adult? Elsa wasn’t entirely sure how long she had been here, had had to keep track of the time by her changing body. (Periods were the worst, when she still had them. A few months after her first one, they had simply stopped. Elsa suspected that the White Suits had done something to make it stop.)

And just as she had grown with the years, Elsa knew that Anna, too, had to have grown. Elsa liked to imagine what her life would have been like if the White Suits had never come, if she could have grown up being the big sister Anna deserved. What would Anna look like now? Was she taller than Elsa? Was her hair still red, or had it lightened into blonde over the years? Had the baby fat in her cheeks melted off? Was she bright and funny and outgoing? Elsa always imagined that she was. Even at five years old, Anna had the type of personality that lit up the room. Elsa wished more than anything that she could see Anna, all grown up and vivacious.

But Elsa hadn’t seen another human being since the White Suits first brought her here. She knew that people came into the room and that took her places, but she was unconscious when that happened—they puffed some sort of anaesthetic into the air, and she was out before she could even think to hold her breath. She was weak and malnourished; sometimes, it physically hurt to drag her body out of bed, no matter how hard she tried to stay in shape. These were the thoughts racing through her head when someone blew a whole into one of the four walls that had been her home for at least a decade.

“Who’s there?” a voice called into her room. Through the smoke and dust, Elsa could make out a tall form. It was holding a gun as it stepped over the threshold and into the Gray Room. “Hello!”

Elsa attempted to say something to get their attention, but it had been so long since she had last used her voice, she broke out into a coughing fit.

“Hey! Hey, I think there’s someone in here!” the voice yelled again, this time over its shoulder. Elsa looked up as the figure came closer. She watched as the face swam closer, the features coming together to form a guy, with crystal blue eyes and a pale face. His white hair was pushed back from his forehead, his brows furrowed as he stared at her.

“Hey? Miss, are you okay?” He slung the strap to his gun over his shoulder as he knelt down in front of her.

“I—” Elsa winced at the croak that was her voice. “C-can you help me?” The volume was barely over a whisper, but the guy nodded and looked back through the way he’d come once more.

“Come with me,” he said, holding a hand out to her. Elsa hesitated. She looked around the Gray Room once more, shook her head as if to rid herself of the memories, and took his hand.

* * *

Getting out of the strange complex that she’d been held was a blur. It seemed easier than it should have been, as if the people there had been planning for an attack and abandoned ship, but Elsa wasn’t going to complain. Now, she was in some sort of old hovership, sitting in what the young man who rescued her had called the galley. He’d handed her a mug filled with some form of warm beverage.

Shortly after he’d gotten her settled, several other people joined them in the room. There was a large man with a big white beard. He had a jolly disposition and a twinkle to his eye, but his loud voice easily filled the space and made Elsa flinch. There was a pretty woman with green hair and swirling green and blue marks covered nearly every inch of her skin. She smiled kindly and spoke softly with the large man and her rescuer. There were others as well, but Elsa was beginning to feel overwhelmed and starting to lose focus. When was the last time that she had been in contact with another person?

“Hey there,” the woman said, sitting down beside Elsa and breaking her out of her thoughts. “My name is Tooth. What’s yours?”

“Elsa,” she told Tooth.

“How are you doing?” Tooth asked.

“Not great,” Elsa admitted. The drink had helped to soothe her throat, and her voice sounded a thousand times better, which Elsa was grateful for.

The woman nodded. “I understand. Jack said that he found you in the experimental quarters?”

“The what?” Elsa asked.

“The experimental quarters,” the guy, Jack, repeated. She had thought that he was in a conversation with the large bearded man, but he seemed to have forgotten it as soon as she spoke. “Where they do experiments on people. And on you, right?”

Elsa blinked. “I— I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Jack asked, not unkindly.

“I’ve never seen anyone else. They just kept me in that room. I don’t know what happened,” Elsa said.

“How long were you in the room for?” Tooth asked.

“I don’t remember.” Elsa shook her head. “Since I was a child.”

“What? Why?” Jack asked. Elsa froze. Her powers. Should she tell these strange people? They had rescued her, but the last time she had trusted people had left her locked in a concrete room for who knows how many years. But surely they deserved an explanation? And perhaps they could even help her—take her to someone like her or who understood her powers in a way that her parents never had.

Elsa nodded once, steeling herself. “Because of my magic.” She nearly closed her eyes, afraid of the reactions of the people around her. But instead of gasps of horror and disgust, there was silence. She looked up to the closest person: Jack, who was staring at her strangely.

“Magic?” he repeated.

“Ice,” Elsa said. “And snow. Winter, I guess. I’ve had them since I was born. One day, I accidentally hurt my sister, and then my parents sent me away.”

The green-haired woman gasped then. Jack shared a look with her, then the bearded man. He turned back to her and held his hand out, palm up.

“Magic, like this?” he asked as a perfect snowflake formed right above his skin. This time it was Elsa’s turn to gasp. She knew that her magic had always given Anna great joy and wonder, but to see someone else create something beautiful and pure out of nothing was a different experience entirely. And this also meant that she wasn’t as different as she thought. Without thinking, Elsa reached out to touch the snowflake. Her fingers brushed against Jack’s and she pulled back immediately.

“Yes,” Elsa said. Jack grinned.

“Can you show me?” he asked. His attitude was infectious. Elsa nodded slowly, a small smile forming on her own face. She looked down at her hands and began to circle them together, imagining a snowflake much like the one that Jack had just made. Like the ones that she used to make for Anna.

But nothing happened. In fact, Elsa felt nothing at all.

“I don’t understand,” Elsa said after a few more attempts. She stared at her empty hands, utterly crushed. For years, she had been completely and totally alone. She’d wished that she was never born with the magic, that the curse would disappear or be broken. She’d thought that if she were normal, she could go back to her family. But now, when she finally had the chance to be with people like her, the power that she’d always had was nowhere to be found. “What happened to me?”

“They took it away,” Tooth said solemnly, placing a light hand on Elsa’s shoulder.

“But how? It was a part of me. It was something I hated, but it was always a part of me,” Elsa said. The familiar burning sensation of tears began behind her eyes, but she willed them down. She was not going to have a break down in the middle of a room full of people she had just met.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Tooth said. “They took mine from me, too.”

Elsa looked at Tooth. “Yours?”

“Flying, and seeing people’s memories. The flying came back after a while, but I’m still working on the other part. I can catch glimpses if I try really hard, but otherwise, there’s nothing,” Tooth said.

“But… how?” Elsa asked.

“How what?” Jack asked.

“How do they just… take something away?” Elsa demanded.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Jack said. “And in the meantime, we’re breaking people out. People like you.”

“You mean there’s more?” Elsa asked. She felt so lost and clueless.

“Trapped in crazy camps? Yes. And people with powers like me and Tooth and North?” Jack hooked a thumb back at North, who cheerfully waved. “Definitely.”

“Wow,” Elsa said. She’d always thought that she was the only person with this curse, this life. But there were people out there who understood what she went through, what she was going through. It felt like someone had shot a bolt of lightning into straight into her body. But there was still a part of her that felt missing.

“You know,” Jack said, as if sensing her thoughts. “I can try to help you. Reteach you and things like that.”

“I never really learned in the first place,” Elsa said. Jack smiled and grabbed her hands.

“Let us help you, Elsa. We’ll get your powers back. And we’ll get the people who did this to you, too.” And Jack’s voice was so sincere, and his eyes were so clear that Elsa found herself believing what he said without any doubt.

“So,” she said, reluctantly pulling her hands from his and spreading her fingers. “What’s the first lesson?”


End file.
